Janine Jackson interviewed Labor Notes‘ Lisa Xu about the auto workers’ strike for the September 22, 2023, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.
Janine Jackson: Listeners will know that members of United Auto Workers are on strike against the Big 3 automakers: General Motors, Ford and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler). Some elite media seemed to be doing their darnedest to fit this unprecedented action into old terms.
ABC (9/22/23)
ABC nightly news delivered a textbook segment on the UAW “threatening” to expand its walkout, the things they’re “demanding,” how the strike is already “disrupting” operations and “idling” workers, and closing on the note that economists are already looking for potential impacts on consumers, and if the action goes on, “ar prices will rise.”
It’s a stuffy script, and it’s not really working. Many people, inside and outside of organized labor, feel something different in the air. More and more question the cartoonish gap between everyday people working hard but still struggling to survive, and company owners asserting that profit rates prove they’ve earned their annual millions and the yachts that come with them.
So all eyes are on the auto workers strike for many reasons. All the more reason to think critically about the way the news media report it to us.
Lisa Xu is an organizer with Labor Notes. She joins us now by phone from Detroit. Welcome to CounterSpin, Lisa Xu.
Lisa Xu: Hi. Thank you for having me.
JJ: I want to talk about the feelings and energy and the people in this story, because it’s so crucial. But let’s start, though, with some backdrop for the strike.
It’s not the whole UAW out at this point; it’s a smaller group of workers in a few places. What, in general terms, or specific terms, is the UAW calling for? And, I mean, the whole union isn’t out, but they’re all ready to go, right? What’s going on here?
Sit-down strikers, Flint, Michigan, 1937. (photo: Sheldon Dick/Wikimedia)
LX: Yeah, no, thank you for that question. The UAW is calling this a “stand-up strike,” in reference to the 1936–1937 Flint sit-down strikes, which really led to a massive expansion of the UAW over the next decade.
And the strategy is, as you described, currently about 13,000 members across three plants—one each at Ford, Stellantis and GM—are out. The stand-up strike strategy is going to consist of escalation from there on out.
UAW President Shawn Fain, I think, has said this will just be dependent on what happens at the bargaining table. And they’ve announced that tomorrow is another deadline, and they’re going to assess how well bargaining is going. If it’s not going well, they’re going to call out more workers. That deadline is noon tomorrow.
In terms of what workers are asking for, this is really about clawing back concessions going back decades, and reversing a major decline in the standard of living for auto workers, a decline that many American workers have seen.
You’ve probably heard about the demand for big wage increases, same as the wage increases the CEOs have given themselves, an end to wage and benefit tiers, and the restoration of pensions and retiree healthcare to those hired after 2007. (That’s a major inequality existing within the UAW.) End to the long-term abuse of temps, a shorter work week, 40 hours of pay for 32 hours of work, and job security and protections against plant closure. And there’s more, too, on the table, but that’s some of the bigger ones.
JJ: A number of those things are absolutely resonant, I’m sure, for people in any industry. The idea of a shorter work week, the idea of getting back concessions—things that workers gave up because they were told that companies were suffering, and now that companies are not suffering, somehow it’s not time to give them back. I think a lot of those things have meaning outside of the auto industry.
But I wanted to just lift up one thing, which is, the UAW is really resisting the idea of tiered workers, the idea that there are temporary workers who were just on a lower tier, where they’re never going to get pensions or benefits. And I point to that, just because it seems so refreshing to see a union actively trying to get all workers to identify together. That seems to me like a great thing for building worker solidarity.
LX: Absolutely. And that’s why workers across the Big 3, whether they’re the so-called legacy workers, the first-tier workers, or they’re second-tier, they all recognize how much damage this has done to solidarity within the union. So there is a push across all these tiers to end tiers.
And like you said, tiers are an issue affecting many other workplaces in the US. We saw the Teamsters end a particularly pernicious form of tiers among UPS drivers, earlier this summer. And, yeah, it is really a big deal for exactly what you said, the strength of the union.
JJ: Another element, and this could be a whole show, but let’s just touch on it: I know that another piece of what the union is saying is, yes, they recognize there’s a transition to electric vehicles. They want that transition not to come at the cost of good jobs. And labor vs. the environment is such a perennial for news media. I wonder if you could just speak briefly to the idea that union auto workers are afraid of the future, somehow, or that they’re somehow opposed to adjustments to climate disruption.
LX: To get into the media critique portion of it, that’s kind of a tired narrative, too. I think a lot of UAW auto workers recognize, the writing is on the wall when it comes to the EV transition, and now it’s time for everyone pushing the transition to a clean energy economy to live up to everything they’ve been saying about good-paying union jobs. That part of it, they seem to have forgotten about.
I think it’s really as simple as that. It’s just calling out that hypocrisy. You said these would be good jobs, so where’s the action now, right?
JJ: Right. Well, I’m going to bring you back to media in just a second, but I did want to say that you dug into a particular aspect of this in your work that can be kind of invisible, or a little under the radar, which is the fact that the Big 3 also operate—it’s not just manufacturing plants—these after-sales parts distribution centers. And those places, the companies were kind of setting them up for a strike, and you dug into that. What did you learn about these parts distribution centers and their role, and what’s interesting about that?
LX: Yeah, they don’t get talked about very much. It was actually kind of hard to dig up information.
So they’re called “parts distribution facilities,” and that makes you think, oh, they supply parts for assembly plants. But no, it’s actually spare parts for when you need a new door when you get into a car accident, or you just need some kind of accessory.
When the Big 3 is selling them directly to dealerships, before the dealership applies any markups, the Big 3 is actually applying a huge markup. I think this is another site of consumer price-gouging for them. They’ve racked up these massive profits just operating these warehouses, and we think of them as making cars, not turning a profit on selling spare parts. It turns out it’s actually a significant money-maker for them.
An article I wrote, I dug up some statements that a former CEO of GM made about just how high these profit margins are, and how it generates billions of dollars of revenue for GM. And I think it’s the same for the other companies, too.
Labor Notes‘ map of Big 3 worksites.
JJ: Just a sort of tentacle that you only find when you report on it. You highlight the fact that unlike big plants, these distribution centers are often smack in the middle of an urban area. So if they were to go on strike, it would look different. It would be an opportunity for the community to have it really up close and personal that these workers were on strike. I thought that was interesting.
LX: Yeah, so there was a map we published along with this article. I wouldn’t say they’re downtown, but they’re within travel distance from coastal cities that might not think of themselves as being near a Big 3 facility. So, yeah, it’s a way for communities outside of the Midwest to support workers, should they walk out of these facilities.
JJ: Community support, of course, can be key. And here, the media play a role that determines how the story is presented to people who are outside of the industry, maybe people who’ve never been in a union or have personal knowledge of unions, and who might be late to work one day because of a picket line.
So media play a big role in explaining the validity, the importance, the issues at play here. You are also a reporter. What have you made of media coverage of this action? What would you like to see more of, or less of?
Lisa Xu: “The whole thing is designed to make you think anytime workers take action, they’re the ones at fault. They’re the ones causing trouble.” (image: Labor Notes)
LX: Yeah. Well, I’m a new reporter, to be fair. I was an organizer for five years. I’m new to reporting, but I’m bringing that same anger from organizing to some of the media coverage we’re seeing.
Honestly, it’s a little infuriating. I’m sure you’re familiar with that. And you mentioned some of the ways in which, through the rhetoric and the emphasis, the media are implying this is a really bad thing for you, the reader, the listener. But once you dig into that a little bit more, you’re like, wait, who is it actually bad for, right? I’ve been trying to tally up all the bosses’ talking points that journalists and editors have decided to just run with very uncritically, whether they know it or not.
So actually, prior to becoming an organizer, I was an economist. So I come out of this world of analysis that really has a pro-corporate slant, and a lot of people don’t realize that it doesn’t actually all add up; it’s just what they’re taught. And obviously the whole thing is designed to make you think anytime workers take action, they’re the ones at fault. They’re the ones causing trouble.
JJ: I don’t know that it’s a lack of general economic understanding. It does seem to be just the way media slant things, when corporate leaders are able to just say, as in this case, oh, we couldn’t possibly afford to give workers what they’re asking for here. I think one of them said, I forget which one, “That would put us out of business.”
As a reporter, you just type that up and put it out to the world? When we know that, I think it’s $21 billion of profits in the first six months of this year from the Big 3. That just doesn’t add up.
LX: One great thing that’s happening in the media, that I’m sure you probably talked about before, it’s just the wave of unionization among media workers and journalists. So I think there is now more critical thinking out there.
But there are a bunch of business reporters reporting on this too. I mean, come on, just look at the numbers. Do they really think this is true?
And the UAW has been doing a great job of comparing numbers. I actually, before this interview, dug up a chart that Shawn Fain presented on one of his last Facebook Lives, comparing the increase in the Big 3’s North American profits, which went up 65%, this is over the last four years; CEO pay, which went up 40%; stock buybacks, which went up 1,500%. And then you get down to UAW top wage rates—so not even the wage rates for second-tier workers or temps, just the top wage rate—that went up 6%. Labor costs are only 4 to 5% per vehicle, and vehicle prices went up 34%.
There’s a lot of numbers that just go to show you they’re making choices. All corporations are making choices. And then collectively, as a society, we’re making choices about how much, basically, labor’s share of income is supposed to be. And apparently it’s supposed to be very, very low.
JJ: Right. Well, it’s obvious that union activity is up, and we’ve seen reporting on that, but labor energy is also up. And it’s not, I don’t think, just because people are frustrated or frightened, though certainly many of us are, but unions seem to be different now. They’re doing different things. They’re engaging workers in ways that are new. And I think folks are recognizing that. Am I misreading that? It seems to me that something new is happening.
LX: I think if you’re on the ground and you’re talking to workers, especially in these unions that are undergoing this revitalization, I think it’s definitely real. And I mean, you see it in new organizing too, right, with new unions that are being formed. It’s real.
And I think the really exciting thing about the Big 3 strike is among union leadership, the new reform leadership, and the rank and file, I think there’s a feeling that they’re making history, not just within the context of the UAW, which would already be enormous, but labor history. I don’t think that’s an overstatement. I think people really feel like there’s something in the air, and especially with the ambition of demands that are being raised, these are demands for the whole working class.
Everyone knows it was unions that won the eight-hour workday. Now it’s going to be up to unions to bring that back, because people don’t have eight-hour workdays anymore.
So I think it’s absolutely real. And sometimes that’s hard to capture in the numbers. Sometimes it’s clearest if you’re on the shop floor, or you’re an organizer talking to a lot of workers every day,
Jacobin (9/16/23)
JJ: A writer for Labor Notes, Luis Feliz Leon, I heard say some time ago, “Solidarity needs to be experienced to be believed.” I thought that was a really compelling comment.
LX: No, I think that’s a great comment. I went through that myself, being in the union, that converted me. And yeah, I do think it’s hard for people who’ve never had that experience of workplace organizing to have faith in how transformative that can be, right?
So Shawn Fain, for people who haven’t heard it yet, gave this amazing speech on Facebook Live—Jacobin did a transcript of it; this was last Wednesday on the eve of the strike—just talking about the role of faith, asking union members to take that leap of faith and stand up in this historic moment. And it was just a very moving speech.
He’s Christian, and he cited scripture from the Bible, and I’m not, but it was just very, very moving. And I think it is about, I think once you’ve had that transformative experience, you understand what workers can accomplish when they’re organized.
JJ: We’ve been speaking with Lisa Xu, organizer and reporter with Labor Notes. They’re online at LaborNotes.org. Lisa Xu, thank you so much for joining us this week on CounterSpin.
LX: Yeah, thank you for having me. Thank you.
The post ‘These Are Demands for the Whole Working Class’ appeared first on FAIR.
This content originally appeared on FAIR and was authored by Janine Jackson.
Janine Jackson | Radio Free (2023-09-29T20:54:59+00:00) ‘These Are Demands for the Whole Working Class’. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2023/09/29/these-are-demands-for-the-whole-working-class/
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